1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a broadcast content distribution system which re-distributes broadcast content to broadcast reception terminals for a digital broadcast, and a distribution apparatus and a broadcast reception terminal device for use in the system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, digitization of a broadcast through a radio wave has progressed, and reception of content of video-related data by means of a mobile reception terminal such as a portable terminal and a terminal with a mobile object mounted thereon has become widespread. Depending on the spread of broadband, Internet Protocol (IP) broadcasting and a video on demand (VOD) service using a communication line have become widely used. Meanwhile, a service which distributes TS packets used for the conventional terrestrial digital broadcast, etc., by using the communication line has become realized.
It should be noted that during the viewing of a digital broadcast program by the mobile reception terminal, when the mobile reception terminal moves to a place where the terminal cannot receive radio waves, or when a situation where a battery becomes dead, the terminal is brought into a situation in which it cannot receive the program which has been viewed till then. Against such interruption, conventionally, there is no countermeasure to recontinue the program from the interrupted part, and a user has to wait the rerun later even if the reception terminal returns to a viewable state.
A system, in which TS packets in a broadcast for a mobile object received and demodulated by a digital broadcast reception device is retransmitted indoors and received by the mobile reception terminal so that the digital broadcast program can be viewed while the terminal moves indoors, is disclosed in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2006-165934. A digital broadcast reception device, which receives an electronic program table from a cellular phone base station and switches to a channel providing the same broadcast program as that of in the former reception region on the basis of an electronic program table by receiving the electronic program table from a cellular phone base station in a case where the viewing of the program becomes impossible due to a change in reception region of a terrestrial digital broadcast caused by movement of a cellular phone terminal in the cellular phone terminal which can receive the terrestrial digital broadcast, is disclosed in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2005-026914. However, these patent documents do not disclose a technique for recontinuing the broadcast program from the interrupted part during viewing.
As mentioned above, in conventional systems, there is no countermeasure for recontinuing the program from the interrupted part against the interruption by which the program which has been viewed becomes suddenly non-viewable during the viewing of the digital broadcast program, and the user has to wait for the rerun later.